Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Cruickshank Building, St Machar Drive, Aberdeen, UK.
Ecol Lett. 2019 Oct;22(10):1608-1619. doi: 10.1111/ele.13357. Epub 2019 Jul 26.
Both niche and stochastic dispersal processes structure the extraordinary diversity of tropical plants, but determining their relative contributions has proven challenging. We address this question using airborne imaging spectroscopy to estimate canopy β-diversity for an extensive region of a Bornean rainforest and challenge these data with models incorporating niches and dispersal. We show that remotely sensed and field-derived estimates of pairwise dissimilarity in community composition are closely matched, proving the applicability of imaging spectroscopy to provide β-diversity data for entire landscapes of over 1000 ha containing contrasting forest types. Our model reproduces the empirical data well and shows that the ecological processes maintaining tropical forest diversity are scale dependent. Patterns of β-diversity are shaped by stochastic dispersal processes acting locally whilst environmental processes act over a wider range of scales.
小生境和随机扩散过程共同构建了热带植物非凡的多样性，但确定它们的相对贡献一直具有挑战性。我们使用机载成像光谱学来估计婆罗洲热带雨林的一个广阔区域的冠层 β 多样性，并使用包含小生境和扩散的模型来挑战这些数据。我们表明，群落组成的成对差异的遥感和实地衍生估计值非常匹配，证明成像光谱学适用于为包含不同森林类型的 1000 多公顷以上整个景观提供 β 多样性数据。我们的模型很好地再现了经验数据，并表明维持热带森林多样性的生态过程是具有尺度依赖性的。β 多样性模式是由局部作用的随机扩散过程塑造的，而环境过程则在更大的范围内起作用。
